Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-04-08
LOSSES IN LITERATURE.
The Destruction of Valuable Manuscripts
by Medieval Fanatics.

InG DeSCfuCIlOu O1 NShlu1UAo N16uuhCIiI II
by Medieval Fanatics.
The greatest calamity to books in the
ancient world was the destruction OF
the Alexandrian library. This library,
says the New York Mail and Express,
was in two buildings, n said to con-
tain 4OO, 900 volumes, and the other
300, 0O0. The former was DESTROYED
accidentally by soldiers. The other
library was subsequently increased, and
surpassed the part of the library that
was burned, but was finally totally de-
stroyed by the Caliph Ornan, whose
narrowness of mind could see nothing
worthy Of preservation outside the
koran. eff these writings agree with
the KORAN" Ornan is reported to have
said, "they are useless and need not be
preserved; if they disagree they are
pernicious and ought to be ~destroyed;"
and the scrolls of the vast repository
we're distributed to the 1000 baths in
the city, and were six months being
burned. Many books of royal an
tiquity were destroyed by royal edict,
others by DEGREES of councils, and still
others fell under the anathema of the
Pope. The Roman Church has been
especially inimical to literature, and
again and again has she attempted to
silence all who opposed her doctrines
and polity. Pope Alexander vi. or
dered oil books prejudicial to the church
to be burned. Pope Gregory VII.
ordered the Palestine Apollo to be de-
stroyed by fire, q library that had been
enriched by several emperors. The
distinction between profane and sacred
literature dates doubtless from this
time, all works not sanctioned by the
church being declared profane. The
Jesuits quite effectually stamped out
the literature and destroyed the ma
tional independence of the Bohemians
by their prescriptions. How much has
history and literature lost through the
famous Indexes? The Index was o cat
alogue of books forbidden to be read.
Another list called the Expurgatory In
dex contained the titles OF books that
were to be amended by the church.
Catholics, however, were not the only
destructionists. The reformers had
their bonfires, selecting for their prey
Illuminated manuscripts, the Puritans
waged war on popish books; Jews
burned pagan books, and Romans jew
ish books; and in these conflagrations,
while the world has been rid of much
that would be an incumbrance and
otfense to the alcoves OF our modern
libraries, yet there can be no doubt
that religious zeal and partisan spirit
has deprived us of much valuable
treasure. A valuable manuscript Of the
book of Genesis. belonging to the Cot
tonian library, was partially destroyed
by fire in 1871. This manuscript was
illustrated with $50 paintings. OF this
number only twenty-one were saved.
Classic students lament wei the lost
books of Livy. We have only thirty
five books of this author out of 40.
OF Tacitus we have a little more than
four books out of thirty, "yet Tacitus
in fragments is still the colossal torso
of history" It is impossible to esti-
mate what we have suffered in the loss
of Varro's lives Of 700 distinguished
Romans and Atticus' Acts of Eminent
Citizens of Rome"